Oz directors salute Mystery Road, Riot

Bunya Productions’ Mystery Road was among the works recognised at the Australian Directors’ Guild Awards in Sydney last night.

Rachel Perkins won best direction in a TV or SVoD drama series for an episode of the crime drama, which stars Aaron Pedersen. It has been commissioned for a second season by pubcaster the ABC.

Elsewhere, Paul Damien Williams received the best direction in a documentary feature prize for Gurrumul, a bio of the late Indigenous musician Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu.

Jeffrey Walker won best direction in a TV or SVoD miniseries or telefeature for Werner Film Productions’ Riot, an ABC telepic about Australia’s gay rights movement in the 1970s.

Nick Verso took home best direction in children’s TV for an episode of Magpie Pictures’ Grace Beside Me, which aired on Indigenous network NITV.

Best direction in drama serial went to Scott Major for an episode of Fremantle/Network 10’s Neighbours.

Cian O’Clery won best direction in a documentary series for Northern Pictures/ABC’s Employable Me, while best direction in a comedy programme went to Colin Cairnes for Radio Karate/Nine Network’s True Story with Hamish & Andy.